A: Dean, that was one of the bigger issues for Broncos chief operating officer Joe Ellis to deal with Tuesday when he formally addressed McDaniels’ firing.

When McDaniels was hired, Jim Goodman was going to run the personnel department, with current general manager Brian Xanders in the mix as well as the team’s assistant general manager.

In McDaniels’ introductory news conference, he said Goodman would have final say on personnel matters. Shortly after that, however, Broncos owner Pat Bowlen said the team decided to promote Xanders, and not Jeff Goodman, from assistant general manager to general manager.

At the time, Bowlen said he believed Jeff Goodman wanted to move on. Bowlen also said he believed it would have been difficult for Jim Goodman to stay after Xanders’ promotion. Some in the organization have said the Broncos wanted Jim Goodman to stay, but it didn’t happen, and Jim Goodman has never really expounded on the events publicly.

That left Xanders and McDaniels directing things, and McDaniels was then given the final say.

The Broncos, in the person of Ellis, admitted that was a mistake Tuesday, given McDaniels was also the Broncos offensive coordinator, calling plays on game day as well as maintaining his duties as the team’s head coach.

Tuesday, Ellis said: “I think the responsibilities that he was burdened with — it’s fair to say that we probably burdened him with too much of that and we were unfair to him in that respect. We certainly need to assess that and look at that moving forward; there’s no question about that. I take some responsibility on behalf of Pat (Bowlen), for allowing that to happen, perhaps. I think a lot of Josh’s vision and the way Pat had structured his organization in the past was something that at the end of the day, or during that time period, he wanted to see continue — in other words, having his head coach kind of oversee all of football operations. We started out with that not being the intent, but it ended up being that way, to some extent.”

After examining what happened during McDaniels’ tenure, the Broncos have come to the conclusion that at least some of what cropped up were time-management issues encountered by a first-time head coach as well as his first time directing a team’s personnel department. The Broncos felt he had too much going on, and it took away from his ability to accomplish what he needed.

The Broncos, in Bowlen’s eyes, also made some mistakes in trades and other personnel moves because of that.

It’s why there will almost certainly be a split between coaching and personnel when the Broncos hire new people this time.

Or, as Ellis said: “It’s very likely that the plan will not empower the next head coach with the kind of authority that Josh probably unfairly had put upon him. It’s also fair to say to say that we’ll stick to that plan.”

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